HERMESA

🎉Many congratulations to Wibke Stoffers, HERMESA CMO, for taking home the prize for Best Women Led Investment in Innovation at the UK Business Angels Association awards last night. 🎉 Wibke received this award for the extraordinary post-deal support that she has provided to the CEO of Byway, Cat Jones, over multiple investment rounds.  Although this award is specifically tied to her work on Byway, Wibke could have received the prize for the support that she provides to any (all!) of her portfolio companies.   Wibke is a tireless advocate and advisor once she invests in a company, providing demonstrable value to her portfolio of startups.  Sometimes her support is simply to be a ‘thought partner’ to CEOs as they struggle with a particular issue, but other times, Wibke rolls up her sleeves and dives in, helping her investee companies with projects  including running brand workshops, helping with go-to-market and channel/customer prioritisation, refining pitch decks and securing follow-on funding. While HERMESA celebrates this very well-deserved award for Wibke, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention that HERmesa has another 200+ investors in its community who are also operators turned angels and who also provide targeted high value support to their investee companies. 💪. Adding value above and beyond capital is core to the HERmesa proposition and we are very pleased that this support has now been recognised as ‘award winning’!  Congrats again to Wibke and Cat!

Really thoughtful post about fundraising expectations (of founders & investors) vs the amount of money you really need to raise leveraging AI to build your startup. Sharing both for HERMESA angel education as well as for founders following us...

It is time to meet another HERmesa Member of the Month! We are thrilled to introduce you to Jami Jenkins ✨ Q: Tell us about yourself. A: I started working as a stock trader in 2007, and as I made gains in the stock market, I diversified into real estate, and then wanted to further diversify into new currencies and new asset classes, so venture capital and the fantastic start-up investment opportunities in the UK with EIS and SEIS were the perfect next step. Since 2014, I have invested in about 35 businesses and in 2018 I joined Ascension, a leading Seed to Series A VC, as a Venture Partner. Q: What brought you to angel investing and HERMESA? A: I learned about HERmesa through working with Ascension. The concept of women investors coming together to support female founders seemed exactly what the world needed yesterday, now and always! Women are very hard workers, sensible, seem to leave no stone left unturned and anyway I noticed that I was always leaning toward female founders with each of my investments, so why not join a group like HERMESA and show support at scale? Q: Can you share a key highlight or learning on your angel investing journey so far? A: One of my biggest problems is getting so excited about a founder, business, team, product that I constantly reinvest. While that can be a good approach, one has to remember that most startups fail, and I have had to suffer the bitter loss of money alongside disappointment that these wonderful ideas won't come fully to fruition. My lesson learned is to spread the investment, diversify, and try to give as many amazing women and ideas a chance as the budget allows. Q: Can you tell us about your investment thesis and some of the companies you have invested in? A: My investment thesis is simply to invest in "do I want this to exist in the world and do I believe in the team." Through HERmesa I have invested in CheMastery Group Ltd, a hardware solution which innovates the entire INDUSTRY of chemistry, and Valla, a legaltech, DIY platform which empowers people with the tools and support they need to stand up for themselves. Outside of HERmesa, I have invested in AI, IoT, fintech, legaltech, ecommerce and my two particular favorites - clean energy and health. My portfolio covers the United States, Europe, the UK, New Zealand, and Australia. Q: What would you say to others who are thinking about becoming angel investors? A: I would say keep in mind the disclaimer: "investments of this nature can lead to complete loss," but, if you have some  extra money, and you want to be part of something bigger than yourself, support good ideas & good people, and try to throw your oar and your money into the change you want to see in the world - then why not go for it? With EIS & SEIS in the UK, the risk is mitigated and the tax reward is immediate. You increase your network and get exposed to people and ideas which help you develop personally, too. In this sense, there never is a complete loss.

Great post from HERMESA member Deborah Gruenberger about the failure of her first angel investment. Thoughtful insights about the risks of investing at a very early stage. To mitigate this risk, all experts tell us to build a portfolio of investments - as Deborah has done - so the eventual winners compensate for the inevitable losers.

HERMESA are a community of operators-turned-angel investors and leverage our members’ sector expertise to screen, diligence and support companies. For our most recent investment, into Béa Fertility, we had the amazing support of our very first mother-daughter investor duo, Natalie and Phoebe! Phoebe Greenwold is a chartered accountant by training and an investment analyst with experience investing in early-stage startups and listed equities. Natalie G. is a specialist obstetrician at UCLH and founder of Medical Aid Films, a charity focused on using animation to prevent infant and maternal mortality in low resource areas. Both are passionate about women’s health. Q: What impressed you about Béa Fertility? A: We were inspired by Bea’s mission to increase accessibility to fertility care by offering a much more affordable first line alternative to existing solutions. The opportunity for defensible intellectual property within the company, combined with the substantial end-market potential, particularly excited us. Bea’s approach of enhancing well-established fertility treatment protocols while prioritising users' needs, enabling them to access care conveniently from the comfort of their own homes, impressed us. Q: Is there a key highlight from the due diligence process that you can share? A: We were greatly impressed by Tess Isabelle Cosad’s resilience and determination, which was evident throughout the process and when digging into the journey of Bea Fertility thus far. Tess isn’t afraid to make tough decisions, and it was clear she has a deep understanding of the market dynamics she’s looking to expand into. Q: What excites you the most about HERMESA's investment in Béa Fertility? A: Bea Fertility has the potential to disrupt the fertility industry and create an entirely new category within it. We’re excited about the meaningful impact Bea could have in transforming fertility care and making a real difference in people’s lives.

We are excited to announce that HERmesa recently completed an investment in Béa Fertility. Bea are disrupting the fertility market by offering an affordable, clinical-grade fertility treatment programme for use at home that is an effective first line treatment, prior to IVF. We spoke to Tess Isabelle Cosad Bea’s brilliant Co-founder and CEO about what’s next for Bea and why she wanted HERmesa on her cap table. Q: What are some of the key things the funds from this round will enable you to do? A: We have successfully launched in the UK and are so pleased to see the many Bea babies! The next step now is to launch into the US. We will achieve FDA clearance for our Class 2 medical device and then be able to commercialise the Bea Treatment in the US. We are also looking to make key hires - especially in product to continue building out the Bea product portfolio. Q: Why did you want HERmesa on your cap table? A: Marla Shapiro’s passion for empowering female investors is so important – I am fiercely proud of having a gender balanced cap table and really happy to continue that with HERMESA. Q: What has been your experience working with HERmesa so far?  A: We are early in our relationship, but I’m excited to meet some of the HERmesa angels knowing they are great operators, and there is so much value there that Béa and I can benefit from.

Last week, we celebrated *5* years of HERmesa! When we started, with a handful of women around a table in January 2020 - six weeks before covid locked down the world - we had no idea what we were doing or what was going to happen next. But we were committed to taking a seat at the table and making sure our voices were being represented as early stage investors. Fast forward 5 years and HERmesa are the most diverse, high value add group of investors in the UK. - We come from 58 different countries - 80% of cheque writers are women (we are a women-led, not women only group) - 30% of our investors are women of colour - 75% of our investors are Entrepreneurs and Operators Our members know first hand what it takes to start and scale companies, to raise funding and to exit their businesses. Their expertise is a true value-add, above and beyond the crucial early stage capital that they put into female (co)founded startups. 🌟 Thank you to the entire HERmesa community!! We couldn't do what we do without your support. Here's to another amazing 5 years 🥂

We are thrilled to kick off 2025 with January's "HERmesa Member of the Month" profile. Meet Zahra Subjally! Q: Tell us about your background I started my career at Estée Lauder in a small team to launch a new brand into the UK – it was like a startup but with the backing of a big company which was great. After a few years at a brand consultancy in Spain, I joined HelloSelf, a platform for online therapy because I’m passionate about mental health. I joined in strategy and operations at Series A, we are now at Series B, double the people and growing fast. Q: What brought you to angel investing and HERMESA? During the pandemic, I was working out my next move. I knew I loved the fast paced startup world, but was exploring if I wanted to be on the investor or operator side. I actually decided I wanted to remain an operator, but HERMESA gave me that outlet to satiate my curiosity of experiencing new sectors & businesses. Q: A key highlight or learning on your angel investing journey? I think it's important for investors to provide value in more than just financial terms. A personal highlight was when I connected one of our founders at the Shellworks with a beauty startup I had previously worked with and they ended up using the Shellworks as one of their suppliers! Q: Tell us about your investment thesis and some of the companies you have invested in It has developed over the past few years but mainly comes down to the following: - Focused on founder: their ability to execute but also rally people around a mission and hire effectively where they don’t have the skills. Cat Jones at Byway is a great example of a passionate and driven founder I am proud to back.   - More B2B than D2C and often not in industries I've actually worked in: mainly because as an operator I’ve seen how fickle customers can be and how hard it can be to execute a go to market strategy using marketing. - Diverse addressable market: CheMastery Group Ltd was my largest investment because there’s a huge market need and what they have created to automate research could span across so many verticals. - A great mission: Code First Girls empowers women. Plus they had proven they could sell their product to big businesses, and that it was actually working. Q: What would you say to others who are thinking about becoming angel investors? - You don’t have to come from a traditional finance background especially at the early stages, it is more about the founders and problem/solution than the projections. - It’s a learning journey & why I love HERMESA. I’ve learned a huge amount from my fellow angels, from the questions they ask in pitches, to doing due diligence together, you’re constantly learning from different perspectives & experiences. - Be human! Having gone through fundraising, I know it’s an exhausting period. Founders work around the clock doing pitches while still running their business. I think it’s important to remember they are humans. Kindness goes a long way.

What a treat to have celebrated the holiday season with HERMESA founders and funders last week! Thank you for sharing your time, capital and expertise with HERMESA this past year. You are truly making the startup world a more equitable and inclusive place and together, we are changing the face of angel investing! 👱♀️💸 2024 was a fantastic year: a number of new & follow on investments made by HERMESA investors. (Some announced; a number more to share soon!). 2025 is already shaping up to be 🔥. We can't wait to keep investing, building and growing with you. Happy Holidays and see you in January

Congratulations to Debbie Wosskow, OBE Wosskow and Hannah Bernard OBE for raising the largest funding pot for female-powered busineses in the world! At HERMESA, we’ve been doing our part to back great female founders for years. But time and again, we’ve seen that the capital just isn’t there for women in the same way that it is for male founders. Too often, women founders raise less money than their male peers. So they have: ⏱️ less runway to find product market fit ↪️ time to pivot if required 📈 the ability to show the kind of traction that would enable them to raise the next big funding round. The Invest in Women Taskforce fund by putting money into female founders is literally going to change the game for women entrepreneurs in the UK. We can't wait to see the results 🚀